NATURAL ARRANGEMENT. 



545 



and microscopical, annual or perennial, and others extend to the length of many fathoms. They grow at the 

 bottom of the sea, or in fresh water, the depths of which they clothe with vegetation, as the higher orders of 

 plants cover the earth with forests. They grow on stems in the water only, or on each other. Some exhale 

 oxygen, others are scented like violets. Their taste is mild ; their substance gelatinous, membranous, or 

 coriaceous, usually covered externally with mucus. The structure of the lowest is articulated ; of the highest 

 fibrous. 



514. Order VIII. LICHE^NES. 

 Genera 35, Species 412. 



Lichens are not only most useful in the economy of nature, as preparing the surface of the earth for the 

 reception of larger vegetables, but they are, moreover, of great utility to man. Many, as Cetraria islandica, 

 are eatable, having a bitter principle, and giving out a styptic tincture if immersed in alcohol. Others, steeped 

 in urine or salts, are used for dyeing; crustaceous species of this kind are Variolaria ore^ina, Lecanura tartarea, 

 Lepraria chlorina, &c. ; foliaceous species, Parmelia saxatilis, Sticta pulmonacea, Solorina crocea, Gyrophora 

 deusta and pustulata, &c. ; and branched kinds, Roccella tinctbria i^the common Orchal), U'snea plicata, 

 Alectoria jubata, and others. In medicine, Cetraria islandica andJiivalis, Sticta pulmonacea, Alectoria 

 usneoides are tonic and nutritive; Parmelia parietina, Borrera purpuracea, Evernia Prunastri, &c, are 

 astringent and febrifugal; Peltidea aphthbsa, anthelmintic ; Evernia vulpina, poisonous. Some yield a gum, 

 as Evdrnia Prunastri ; Sticta pulmonacea may be employed for bittering beer instead of hops, and Ramalina 

 scopulorum instead of soap. The various species give the grey hue to old walls and stones, cover desert heaths, 

 and mottle the bark of ancient trees. 



515. Order IX. FU'NGI. 

 Genera 159, Species 1157. 



We have now reached the lowest station of vegetable existence, in arriving where the vesicles which 

 compose the vegetable fabric are combined in various forms, according to the contingent circumstances under 

 which they are developed. The mould on the cheese, the ergot of corn, the rust of the rose, and the huge 

 2?oletus, which, in Java, spreads out its many-handed body from the trunks of ancient trees like a vegetating 

 demon, differ only in the number of the vesicles of which they are composed. Many species are eatable, as 

 ^garicus campestris ; others are deadly, as 2?oletus scaber : some are used medicinally, as Da?dalea suaveolens 

 in coughs ; ^garicus tuba reglna? in diarrhoea ; Jgaricus piperatus in calculous disorders ; Phallus Mokhsm 

 against cancer; Polyporus annbsus against the bites of serpents. Some Coprini are used for healing ulcers ; 

 Polyporus officinalis as a purgative; Polyporus igniarius as a styptic ; Polyporus destructor, and a number of 

 others, constitute dry rot. For the poison of fungi, the roots of garlic, the leaves of parsley, and tincture of 

 lacmus, are said to be remedies ; so also is common spirit. Fungi swarm in all the coldest countries of the 

 world, but as we approach the equator they are extremely rare j the place where they most flourish is Sweden, 

 and the adjacent regions. 



After the most perfect classification which the present state of botanical knowledge renders practicable, 

 there still remain a few genera which are incapable of having their true station assigned to them, either in 

 consequence of their structure being incompletely known, or of their affinity not having yet been discovered. 

 As far as this work is concerned, they are the following, all of which are Dicotyledon es. 



S341 Mdrlea Rox, 2731 Trichocladus Pers. | 2994 Laurophyllus Thun. 



*♦* The foregoing Arrangement is founded on that given by Mr. Lindley in the Encyclopedia of Plank, , 

 but to suit it to the purposes of this Catalogue, it necessarily required a great many alterations and addi. 

 tions, for which Mr, Lindley is not responsible. — J. C. L. 



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